True, there is no specific absolute reference point, all determinations are relative to one another.
There are however methods of statical analysis that still be used in these circumstances. (Whether or not they have been tried is a different matter.)
If you wanted to get towards an absolute measurement, a form of gas suspension is probably as close as you would be able to achieve.
Er, do you?
@Simon-in-Suffolk
An partial analogy for visco-elastic materials (aka ‘rubber!’) you may appreciate is that is is similar to an electric transmission line energised by a DC signal with a wideband modulation on top of it, but where the dielectric is a lossy intrinsic semiconductor.
It’s more likely a shoes rack. I don’t see any nice craftsmanship….
Sorry Andy.
I’m with you on that FR. Functional? Maybe. Attractive? No
But it’s designed built and crafted by one of our esteemed forum members.
Oups! 
No worries, it’s made from superfluous floor wood from our previous house. Once many other priorities are taken care of I might have money to spend on a proper hifi rack.
The Finere Element Podium looks as a solid piece of engineering.
Btw, there is also another version of this rack which hosts the microwave …
I am not an engineer by any stretch of the imagination. Reading through the posts by people who have an understanding of this I wonder if designing hi-fi racks is a bit like designing pro racing bikes or GP motorbike frames. You want some flexibility and movement in certain directions and more stiffness in others. Reading articles about this, where much of it goes way above my head, something I have possibly understood is that a successful frame is achieved through a mix of engineering with a bit of intuition. I wonder if a similar mix of science and art is the case with hi-fi racks.
Which sounds better?
It’s an unfair comparison. I must say that the ‘beep’ of the microwave sound much better after I’ve put it on a rack.
The real reason is that the microwave is in the cellar and during a few days in the year there is water in the cellar so I had to put it on something.
My hifirack is just something to stack the amps on, it has no sonic pretentions.
At least yours costs nothing, the Hifi rack 100 X more for similar performance
This may be a simplistic way of looking at it, but shouldn’t manufacturers pay more attention to the way the electronics inside their amplifiers/streamers/CD players are isolated (I know Naim does) ? The customer wouldn’t have to spend so much money on racks, perhaps.
Why Naim does? Quite all say that a Fraim enhances very significantly the sound.
I am not aware of any electronics that don’t benefit from a proper hifi rack. But maybe they exist.
To be fair, rack manufacturers aren’t swimming in a pool of magic claims. Microphony is not a fringe issue. When you get the data sheets for any off the shelf capacitor (for example) it has stated tolerances for microphony and the effects on performance and what frequencies are leaked. Even the data sheets for the tiny caps that cost 10 pennies in your laptop have this in their data sheets.
At the component level, this stuff counts. It’s not just hifi.
Would a metal plate of some kind hovering in the air due to electromagnetic repulsion be feasible?
Possibly useless in reality if em effects affected the cartridge?
Does anyone remember that kids science show with Johnny Ball where they shot a tray across the studio with some electromagnetic rails underneath>
Feeling dated.
No idea about a kids show or who Johnny Ball is, but I recall being fascinated by Eric Laithwaite’s linear motor being demonstrated. (Possibly one and the same thing, though I suspect what I saw may have been on Tomorrow’s World.)
I did start a thread on this a while back: Magnetic levitation for equipment isolation, though there weren’t many contributions, and I see that whatever links I had posed were removed. And of course magnetic levitation is used in the Maglev turntable - does that still need anything special in terms of a stand?
Absolutely true.
As far as magic claims by manufacturers with regard to racks goes, that’s another matter I think. Yes by and large racks do enhance the performance. My issue is not that - but the unsubstantiated claims made by manufacturers with regard to how their racks work. Talk of energy pathways to earth, avoidance of resonance through the use of non-parallel surfaces etc, etc. Where is the scientific/engineering evidence to support these claims? If it exists, and I’m not necessarily saying it doesn’t, then I’ve yet to read of it anywhere. In the absence of this evidence then all these claims amount to is nothing but gobbledygook.
What I sort of suspect is that some manufacturers do design their racks based on solid engineering principles. However a number of manufacturers just jump on the bandwagon and cobble together something which amounts to nothing but a simple set of shelves with nothing special about them. They then make inflated claims about what they do and how they do it based on the genuine claims made by manufacturers who have actually done the engineering research.
Just my opinion of course. I could be wrong and I’m open to correction if anyone knows different.
Yes I do! I also remember How? and Young Scientist of the Year. Great shows, entertaining, fascinating and very educational. Do they still have programs like this for kids? - what a crying shame if they don’t.
I think that there are a few stands or isolation devices that use this principle. It’s not a cure-all though. Mechanical forces can still be transmitted through the interface via the magnetic fields despite no physical contact.
To some extent, but I have found one of the sensitive aspects of equipment on stands is the external pressure connections from, mains, interconnects etc.
If the device is moving subtly with respect to the lead at the connection, perhaps through vibration, resonance etc, then I believe this has a detrimental affect on performance.
I think most of us know the pressure contact connections are the achilles heals in many setups. If we soldered our interconnects and mains leads to our devices, I am fairly sure performance would take a step forward.